DIY - Room Acoustics..

aeroash said:
Hello all!

This is my DIY attempt with Acoustic Panels.

The look of ready-made acoustic panels might not be to everyone's taste, it definitely wasn't to mine! I was considering alternatives.
The problem I was looking to solve was to cut the flutter echo in the music room.

Online scavenging of text and videos gave me a couple of ideas, and I decided to take the DIY route.
First, I needed something effective, and something aesthetically pleasing, and also something that’ll be in harmony with the existing décor.

I decided on working with 2” Aluminium L-Channels for the frame, as the finishing would be superior, with minimal work, and also keep the weight down.
I went for Triangles as the shape of the frame to keep things interesting.
The smaller triangles are 18” on each side and the bigger triangles are 24” per side.
The frame is lined with canvas to soften the aluminium surface.
The stuffing inside the frame is 32 density sofa foam of 50mm thickness.
The frame is wrapped in Khadi fabric, as it is highly absorbent.

The advantage with this method is that whenever you decide to change the look you can just remove the fabric and wrap a new one around the frame to suit your taste. You cannot do this with the readymade acoustic panels, you’re stuck with it, literally!

I initially wanted to wrap canvas on the frame and paint portraits of my favourite rock stars, in black and white. Painting on the canvas can block the pores, seal them, and negate the whole purpose of the panels, hence dropped the idea. This would’ve been really cool though.

The total cost of this project was less than Rs.4,000/-

Observation:
The echo effect has been minimized, the lower frequencies which previously sounded flabby have been tamed and tightened.
Good separation, minimal overlapping.
I'm missing certain subtle sibilance which I liked, will have to play around with the panels or subtract a few to make them sound just right.

Advice:
You’ll have to be careful in treating the room. Over treating can result in cutting out the liveliness from the music and make the music sound ‘dead’, in other words, you might lose the reverb effect which is desired to an extent to make music sound desirable.

Alternative DIY Options:
If you’re interested in exploring the DIY route here are some options to consider with regards to making a frame.
  • For the ones who are not comfortable with tools, you could buy readymade frames used for art painting (without the canvas), stuff it with sofa foam, wrap fabric on it, and hang it on the wall like a painting. These frames can be had for cheap.
  • Another option would be to source pinewood reapers, cut them to size and nail 4 reapers together to make a frame.
  • You can also source reapers from your local glass supplier, as the glass is transported to them from the glass factories in rubberwood frames. These reapers can be had for pretty cheap.
  • Alternatively, If you can totally boss over a hand wood-cutting machine you can prepare a frame with 8mm plywood (thickness will depend on the size of the frame). This method will be tedious, as cutting plywood in a straight line is an art in itself! The cost could be a little higher for this method, but the advantage will be smooth finished sides.
If driving nails into wood is a challenge you can try the Bostik No More Nails glue. This thing can hold a train together!

I used the 3M Fast Bond Tape to stick the fabric on the inside of the frame. Strong tape this one. Fabric can be removed and stuck multiple times, no hassle if you want to change the fabric later on.

You can also use a big stape gun, like this one, to staple the fabric to the wood on the inside. Replacing the fabric would be a challenge with this method.

You can also rotate a square frame to make it into a diamond/rhombus while placing them on the wall, play around with the placing, with different colours and layouts, you’ll have plenty of options to work for you and your room!


Easest Method:
Stick sofa foam on the wall with one-inch sized two-sided tape on the 4 corners of the foam. Stick longer length tape if you’ve no confidence that the tape will hold (RIP painted wall)
Sofa foam comes in a size of 3’x6’, cut them to the desired size first.
Once you’ve stuck the foam, instal curtain rods and just draw a cotton curtain over them! Simple!

@elangoas , I hope I haven’t hijacked your thread. Forgive me if I have. I can move this to a new thread.


View attachment 42963View attachment 42964View attachment 42965View attachment 42966View attachment 42967View attachment 42968View attachment 42969
Click to expand...
Forgot to mention, I did do an 'before and after' voice test. The difference is substantial.
 
@aeroash

Nice job

Did u find out the 1st reflection point's behind the speaker ?

Maybe instead of sofa foam you may want to try out absorbing material from aural exchange nankarrow geo wool.

Just a thought.

Regards
 
mpw said:
@aeroash

Nice job

Did u find out the 1st reflection point's behind the speaker ?

Maybe instead of sofa foam you may want to try out absorbing material from aural exchange nankarrow geo wool.

Just a thought.

Regards
Click to expand...
I did a mock setup with just the cut out foam triangles (before inserting them in the frame), stuck them at possible reflection points with Scotch Wall Safe tape. I moved them around to fixate on the best possible spots. This took me almost a day. As I wanted fresh ears after every change.
 
elangoas said:
Followed the instructions of keeping the can, approx 20 cms away from foam and spraying the adhesive on it..
oLNBeA0.jpg


With some help from wife, was able to complete most of front wall..
dMbrX19.jpg


I would still need to cut the foams partially and fix on the front wall gaps.. I think i have almost exhausted the foams.. Just 6 sqft area of foams remaining..

Played some regional multi-channel music content from amazon prime movies, and there was nice echo in the room in some part of the song sequence.. It felt nice.. echo felt like it stretched to ceiling.. (could be coz i always use Dolby Digital + and Dolby surround up-mixer) for the heights..

Didn't get much time to check, will do over the coming weekends and share more feedback..
Click to expand...
looks nice..
 
aeroash said:
Hello all!

This is my DIY attempt with Acoustic Panels.

The look of ready-made acoustic panels might not be to everyone's taste, it definitely wasn't to mine! I was considering alternatives.
The problem I was looking to solve was to cut the flutter echo in the music room.

Online scavenging of text and videos gave me a couple of ideas, and I decided to take the DIY route.
First, I needed something effective, and something aesthetically pleasing, and also something that’ll be in harmony with the existing décor.

I decided on working with 2” Aluminium L-Channels for the frame, as the finishing would be superior, with minimal work, and also keep the weight down.
I went for Triangles as the shape of the frame to keep things interesting.
The smaller triangles are 18” on each side and the bigger triangles are 24” per side.
The frame is lined with canvas to soften the aluminium surface.
The stuffing inside the frame is 32 density sofa foam of 50mm thickness.
The frame is wrapped in Khadi fabric, as it is highly absorbent.

The advantage with this method is that whenever you decide to change the look you can just remove the fabric and wrap a new one around the frame to suit your taste. You cannot do this with the readymade acoustic panels, you’re stuck with it, literally!

I initially wanted to wrap canvas on the frame and paint portraits of my favourite rock stars, in black and white. Painting on the canvas can block the pores, seal them, and negate the whole purpose of the panels, hence dropped the idea. This would’ve been really cool though.

The total cost of this project was less than Rs.4,000/-

Observation:
The echo effect has been minimized, the lower frequencies which previously sounded flabby have been tamed and tightened.
Good separation, minimal overlapping.
I'm missing certain subtle sibilance which I liked, will have to play around with the panels or subtract a few to make them sound just right.

Advice:
You’ll have to be careful in treating the room. Over treating can result in cutting out the liveliness from the music and make the music sound ‘dead’, in other words, you might lose the reverb effect which is desired to an extent to make music sound desirable.

Alternative DIY Options:
If you’re interested in exploring the DIY route here are some options to consider with regards to making a frame.
  • For the ones who are not comfortable with tools, you could buy readymade frames used for art painting (without the canvas), stuff it with sofa foam, wrap fabric on it, and hang it on the wall like a painting. These frames can be had for cheap.
  • Another option would be to source pinewood reapers, cut them to size and nail 4 reapers together to make a frame.
  • You can also source reapers from your local glass supplier, as the glass is transported to them from the glass factories in rubberwood frames. These reapers can be had for pretty cheap.
  • Alternatively, If you can totally boss over a hand wood-cutting machine you can prepare a frame with 8mm plywood (thickness will depend on the size of the frame). This method will be tedious, as cutting plywood in a straight line is an art in itself! The cost could be a little higher for this method, but the advantage will be smooth finished sides.
If driving nails into wood is a challenge you can try the Bostik No More Nails glue. This thing can hold a train together!

I used the 3M Fast Bond Tape to stick the fabric on the inside of the frame. Strong tape this one. Fabric can be removed and stuck multiple times, no hassle if you want to change the fabric later on.

You can also use a big stape gun, like this one, to staple the fabric to the wood on the inside. Replacing the fabric would be a challenge with this method.

You can also rotate a square frame to make it into a diamond/rhombus while placing them on the wall, play around with the placing, with different colours and layouts, you’ll have plenty of options to work for you and your room!


Easest Method:
Stick sofa foam on the wall with one-inch sized two-sided tape on the 4 corners of the foam. Stick longer length tape if you’ve no confidence that the tape will hold (RIP painted wall)
Sofa foam comes in a size of 3’x6’, cut them to the desired size first.
Once you’ve stuck the foam, instal curtain rods and just draw a cotton curtain over them! Simple!

@elangoas , I hope I haven’t hijacked your thread. Forgive me if I have. I can move this to a new thread.


View attachment 42963View attachment 42964View attachment 42965View attachment 42966View attachment 42967View attachment 42968View attachment 42969
Click to expand...
Very sofisticate looks bro.. you have good color combination on fabrick and also the cetre wall looks great imo
 
aeroash said:
Hello all!

This is my DIY attempt with Acoustic Panels.

The look of ready-made acoustic panels might not be to everyone's taste, it definitely wasn't to mine! I was considering alternatives.
The problem I was looking to solve was to cut the flutter echo in the music room.

Online scavenging of text and videos gave me a couple of ideas, and I decided to take the DIY route.
First, I needed something effective, and something aesthetically pleasing, and also something that’ll be in harmony with the existing décor.

I decided on working with 2” Aluminium L-Channels for the frame, as the finishing would be superior, with minimal work, and also keep the weight down.
I went for Triangles as the shape of the frame to keep things interesting.
The smaller triangles are 18” on each side and the bigger triangles are 24” per side.
The frame is lined with canvas to soften the aluminium surface.
The stuffing inside the frame is 32 density sofa foam of 50mm thickness.
The frame is wrapped in Khadi fabric, as it is highly absorbent.

The advantage with this method is that whenever you decide to change the look you can just remove the fabric and wrap a new one around the frame to suit your taste. You cannot do this with the readymade acoustic panels, you’re stuck with it, literally!

I initially wanted to wrap canvas on the frame and paint portraits of my favourite rock stars, in black and white. Painting on the canvas can block the pores, seal them, and negate the whole purpose of the panels, hence dropped the idea. This would’ve been really cool though.

The total cost of this project was less than Rs.4,000/-

Observation:
The echo effect has been minimized, the lower frequencies which previously sounded flabby have been tamed and tightened.
Good separation, minimal overlapping.
I'm missing certain subtle sibilance which I liked, will have to play around with the panels or subtract a few to make them sound just right.

Advice:
You’ll have to be careful in treating the room. Over treating can result in cutting out the liveliness from the music and make the music sound ‘dead’, in other words, you might lose the reverb effect which is desired to an extent to make music sound desirable.

Alternative DIY Options:
If you’re interested in exploring the DIY route here are some options to consider with regards to making a frame.
  • For the ones who are not comfortable with tools, you could buy readymade frames used for art painting (without the canvas), stuff it with sofa foam, wrap fabric on it, and hang it on the wall like a painting. These frames can be had for cheap.
  • Another option would be to source pinewood reapers, cut them to size and nail 4 reapers together to make a frame.
  • You can also source reapers from your local glass supplier, as the glass is transported to them from the glass factories in rubberwood frames. These reapers can be had for pretty cheap.
  • Alternatively, If you can totally boss over a hand wood-cutting machine you can prepare a frame with 8mm plywood (thickness will depend on the size of the frame). This method will be tedious, as cutting plywood in a straight line is an art in itself! The cost could be a little higher for this method, but the advantage will be smooth finished sides.
If driving nails into wood is a challenge you can try the Bostik No More Nails glue. This thing can hold a train together!

I used the 3M Fast Bond Tape to stick the fabric on the inside of the frame. Strong tape this one. Fabric can be removed and stuck multiple times, no hassle if you want to change the fabric later on.

You can also use a big stape gun, like this one, to staple the fabric to the wood on the inside. Replacing the fabric would be a challenge with this method.

You can also rotate a square frame to make it into a diamond/rhombus while placing them on the wall, play around with the placing, with different colours and layouts, you’ll have plenty of options to work for you and your room!


Easest Method:
Stick sofa foam on the wall with one-inch sized two-sided tape on the 4 corners of the foam. Stick longer length tape if you’ve no confidence that the tape will hold (RIP painted wall)
Sofa foam comes in a size of 3’x6’, cut them to the desired size first.
Once you’ve stuck the foam, instal curtain rods and just draw a cotton curtain over them! Simple!

@elangoas , I hope I haven’t hijacked your thread. Forgive me if I have. I can move this to a new thread.


View attachment 42963View attachment 42964View attachment 42965View attachment 42966View attachment 42967View attachment 42968View attachment 42969
Click to expand...

Errrr...sofa foam is closed cell foam, while acoustic foam is open cell foam, and the former has really bad absorption properties. Even open cell foam doesn't really do much for lower frequencies unless it goes above 4" in thickness. NRC, noise reduction coefficient, is the measure used for gauging how well materials perform in absorbing sound.

At best, these panels will absorb high-treble frequencies. If you're hearing improvement in lower frequencies, then it must be placebo effect. Sorry. Science dictates that these panels can't absorb lower or even mid-range frequencies.
 
Last edited:
mpw said:
@aeroash

Nice job

Did u find out the 1st reflection point's behind the speaker ?

Maybe instead of sofa foam you may want to try out absorbing material from aural exchange nankarrow geo wool.

Just a thought.

Regards
Click to expand...
The nankarrow wool looks good. Wasn't aware of this.
Marakk said:
Errrr...sofa foam is closed cell foam, while acoustic foam is open cell foam, and the former has really bad absorption properties. Even open cell foam doesn't really do much for lower frequencies unless it goes above 4" in thickness. NRC, noise reduction coefficient, is the measure used for gauging how well materials perform in absorbing sound.

At best, these panels will absorb high-treble frequencies. If you're hearing improvement in lower frequencies, then it must be placebo effect. Sorry. Science dictates that these panels can't absorb lower or even mid-range frequencies.
Click to expand...
I will not argue with science, nor will I argue with my ears. Sometimes placebo is an effective cure!
 
aeroash said:
The nankarrow wool looks good. Wasn't aware of this.

I will not argue with science, nor will I argue with my ears. Sometimes placebo is an effective cure!
Click to expand...

Placebo is only a cure when there's no disease. :P

For those looking for treatments that will actually work, please stick with acoustic foam if you can't use rockwool or glasswool because of health concerns. Wood wool panels also have a decent NRC performance, especially if you mount them on wall with one-inch gap with spacers.
 
aeroash said:
The nankarrow wool looks good. Wasn't aware of this.

I will not argue with science, nor will I argue with my ears. Sometimes placebo is an effective cure!
Click to expand...
I think your approach is really good both with the panels and the look. Just that sofa foam like wall carpets do very little to stuff other than HF.
An old link for reference

But it could also be that your problem was with HF (typically echo issues) and hence the solution might have worked.
 
aeroash said:
Hello all!

This is my DIY attempt with Acoustic Panels.

The look of ready-made acoustic panels might not be to everyone's taste, it definitely wasn't to mine! I was considering alternatives.
The problem I was looking to solve was to cut the flutter echo in the music room.

Online scavenging of text and videos gave me a couple of ideas, and I decided to take the DIY route.
First, I needed something effective, and something aesthetically pleasing, and also something that’ll be in harmony with the existing décor.

I decided on working with 2” Aluminium L-Channels for the frame, as the finishing would be superior, with minimal work, and also keep the weight down.
I went for Triangles as the shape of the frame to keep things interesting.
The smaller triangles are 18” on each side and the bigger triangles are 24” per side.
The frame is lined with canvas to soften the aluminium surface.
The stuffing inside the frame is 32 density sofa foam of 50mm thickness.
The frame is wrapped in Khadi fabric, as it is highly absorbent.

The advantage with this method is that whenever you decide to change the look you can just remove the fabric and wrap a new one around the frame to suit your taste. You cannot do this with the readymade acoustic panels, you’re stuck with it, literally!

I initially wanted to wrap canvas on the frame and paint portraits of my favourite rock stars, in black and white. Painting on the canvas can block the pores, seal them, and negate the whole purpose of the panels, hence dropped the idea. This would’ve been really cool though.

The total cost of this project was less than Rs.4,000/-

Observation:
The echo effect has been minimized, the lower frequencies which previously sounded flabby have been tamed and tightened.
Good separation, minimal overlapping.
I'm missing certain subtle sibilance which I liked, will have to play around with the panels or subtract a few to make them sound just right.

Advice:
You’ll have to be careful in treating the room. Over treating can result in cutting out the liveliness from the music and make the music sound ‘dead’, in other words, you might lose the reverb effect which is desired to an extent to make music sound desirable.

Alternative DIY Options:
If you’re interested in exploring the DIY route here are some options to consider with regards to making a frame.
  • For the ones who are not comfortable with tools, you could buy readymade frames used for art painting (without the canvas), stuff it with sofa foam, wrap fabric on it, and hang it on the wall like a painting. These frames can be had for cheap.
  • Another option would be to source pinewood reapers, cut them to size and nail 4 reapers together to make a frame.
  • You can also source reapers from your local glass supplier, as the glass is transported to them from the glass factories in rubberwood frames. These reapers can be had for pretty cheap.
  • Alternatively, If you can totally boss over a hand wood-cutting machine you can prepare a frame with 8mm plywood (thickness will depend on the size of the frame). This method will be tedious, as cutting plywood in a straight line is an art in itself! The cost could be a little higher for this method, but the advantage will be smooth finished sides.
If driving nails into wood is a challenge you can try the Bostik No More Nails glue. This thing can hold a train together!

I used the 3M Fast Bond Tape to stick the fabric on the inside of the frame. Strong tape this one. Fabric can be removed and stuck multiple times, no hassle if you want to change the fabric later on.

You can also use a big stape gun, like this one, to staple the fabric to the wood on the inside. Replacing the fabric would be a challenge with this method.

You can also rotate a square frame to make it into a diamond/rhombus while placing them on the wall, play around with the placing, with different colours and layouts, you’ll have plenty of options to work for you and your room!


Easest Method:
Stick sofa foam on the wall with one-inch sized two-sided tape on the 4 corners of the foam. Stick longer length tape if you’ve no confidence that the tape will hold (RIP painted wall)
Sofa foam comes in a size of 3’x6’, cut them to the desired size first.
Once you’ve stuck the foam, instal curtain rods and just draw a cotton curtain over them! Simple!

@elangoas , I hope I haven’t hijacked your thread. Forgive me if I have. I can move this to a new thread.


View attachment 42963View attachment 42964View attachment 42965View attachment 42966View attachment 42967View attachment 42968View attachment 42969
Click to expand...
Looks very Nice.
 
elangoas said:
Followed the instructions of keeping the can, approx 20 cms away from foam and spraying the adhesive on it..
oLNBeA0.jpg


With some help from wife, was able to complete most of front wall..
dMbrX19.jpg


I would still need to cut the foams partially and fix on the front wall gaps.. I think i have almost exhausted the foams.. Just 6 sqft area of foams remaining..

Played some regional multi-channel music content from amazon prime movies, and there was nice echo in the room in some part of the song sequence.. It felt nice.. echo felt like it stretched to ceiling.. (could be coz i always use Dolby Digital + and Dolby surround up-mixer) for the heights..

Didn't get much time to check, will do over the coming weekends and share more feedback..
Click to expand...
Congratulations Elangoas!!! ,hope u r in the verge of completing ur Acoustic Treatment.Wish u for reference levels...
 
elangoas said:
Great Job @aeroash .. Hope you can build some more taller ones stacking them over upto ceiling..
Click to expand...
Thanks @elangoas. Thanks to your valuable suggestions too.
Stacking is in the pipeline. I'm considering tube bass traps to stack over this. The advantage would be that I can move it around anywhere in the room, unlike a corner bass trap. Moving around options are beneficial, especially when you're shooting in the dark.

One of the resources I came across
 
aeroash said:
DIY Bass Trap
41"h x 24"w x 12"deep
Frame is made of 12mm ply.

First layer is with 50mm Roxul Rockwool acoustic board - Density 60kg/m³, for stiffness.
Rest of it is filled with Knauf ECOSE 25mm Acoustic Glass Wool Roll - 24 kg/m³.

View attachment 43171View attachment 43172View attachment 43173View attachment 43177View attachment 43178View attachment 43179View attachment 43180
Click to expand...

How well does rock wool/glass wool work for lower frequencies between 50-250hz?

I’m too thinking of going the DIY route for bass traps.
 
thedude said:
How well does rock wool/glass wool work for lower frequencies between 50-250hz?

I’m too thinking of going the DIY route for bass traps.
Click to expand...
From a thickness perspective, 50 to 100 Hz is impossible to treat through material. There are other ways you can build tuned traps which can be used. But in the 50 Hz to 100 Hz, PEQ is better. In my case (read my thread), I had a very strong mode at 34Hz which didnt budge with any bass trap but was easily handled by PEQ.

Tuned Bass Traps are slightly more difficult to DIY, there are ready ones from GIK but you can buy a PEQ at the same price.
 
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